S.F. gun buyback set Saturday in Visitacion Valley

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San Francisco will host a citywide gun buyback in Visitacion Valley on Saturday, with city officials offering up to $200 — no questions asked — in exchange for people’s weapons in an effort to get them off the streets and out of people’s homes.

Cities have been conducting buybacks for years in an effort to cut down on gun violence. Earlier events have resulted in San Franciscans turning in a total of 529 guns.

“It’s a complicated problem,” said Sarah Rogers, civilian co-chair of Ingleside Station’s Community Police Advisory Board, one of the groups helping with Saturday’s buyback. “There’s no easy fix to it at all. Especially with the limits on new legislation, you have to think creatively about it. You have to tackle the root causes of how someone ends up in a situation where they must resort to violence.”

Rogers noted the buyback is just one of several initiatives to stop gun violence in San Francisco. Among them is the mayor’s IPO program — Interrupt, Predict, Organize for a Safer San Francisco — since 2012, which includes creating jobs and providing social services for residents of high-crime neighborhoods.

Many of the groups involved with Saturday’s gun buyback have also been working to engage youth and young adults in these communities, to provide them other options besides violence, Rogers said.

Although some studies have shown that gun buybacks aren’t effective in cutting violence — in fact, many of the buybacks result in people getting rid of inherited old relics rather than firearms that would have been used in the commission of crimes — Rogers said fighting gun violence requires trying everything. Getting a gun out of the house lessens the chance of accidental shootings, she said.

“It’s a multi-factorial sort of thing, gun violence,” Rogers said. “It’s impossible to say if a gun buyback prevented a particular crime. But there is a correlation to removing guns from the street — the areas with less guns have less gun violence.

“Gun buybacks will not hurt anyone. It’s hard to quantify how much they will help, but at the very least, they won’t hurt anyone.”

Whether or not gun buybacks are effective, Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement that they are a way to bring the community together to work to fight a singular issue.

“Making sure San Francisco remains one of the safest big cities in the nation is one of my highest priorities, and these gun buyback programs bring the community together to take guns out of our homes and off our streets, and create a safer, stronger city for everyone,” he said.

The gun buyback will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at 2630 Bayshore Blvd. Participants must arrive in a car with unloaded firearms. Guns in working condition will be exchanged for up to $100, and up to $200 for assault-type weapons. A maximum of five guns may be exchanged per vehicle.